About the role

Water Quality Scientist

Full Time - 36 hours

Permanent role (flexible working arrangements will be considered)

Salary £40,833 - £51,041 (depending on experience)

Location: Chelmsford, Hanningfield, Essex

About the role

Are you passionate about ensuring safe and clean drinking water? We have an exciting opportunity to become a vital member of our dedicated Water Quality team at Essex and Suffolk Water. Our team is committed to demonstrating our compliance with regulatory requirements for drinking water quality.

As a Water Quality Scientist, you will play a crucial role in protecting public health by providing expert technical advice and support to both internal and external stakeholders. You will build and maintain essential relationships with key partners, including local health authorities and the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

Your responsibilities will include assessing and managing risks to public health for both planned and reactive work. As a technical expert, you will investigate various matters affecting water quality, prepare detailed technical reports, and perform audits of water treatment processes and network assets. Additionally, you will analyse and interpret data to identify areas for improvement and evaluate performance.

You will oversee all water quality matters within a specific geographic area and promote best practices while ensuring compliance with relevant legislation. As part of our standby rota, you will provide support and advice on any water quality concerns that arise.

If you are ready to make a difference and contribute to the continuous improvement of water quality, we would love to hear from you.

About you

The successful candidate will have a flexible approach and the ability to prioritise tasks effectively.

We are looking for someone with hands-on experience in regulations and risk assessment, and a degree in a relevant scientific field. A strong understanding of drinking water regulations, water treatment, and distribution systems would be a great advantage.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of consulting and influencing stakeholders and thrive under pressure. Experience in presenting to large audiences is highly desirable, as this will be an important aspect of the role. Clear and concise report writing is essential, along with excellent communication skills to engage with people at all levels.

About us

Here at Essex & Suffolk Water, we embrace and value Diversity, Inclusion and Equity, and encourage all colleagues to bring their most authentic self to work.

Our colleague network groups include our Rainbow Support Network (LGBTQIA+), REACH (Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Heritage), WiSTEM (Women in STEM) and Thisability (disability and neurodiversity) networks. They provide a safe space for colleagues from diverse backgrounds, welcoming all colleagues regardless of their personal characteristics to participate in valuable conversation that improves our organisational awareness, understanding and inclusivity.

We encourage and welcome all applications, as we strive to be an equal opportunity employer, committed to having diverse communities represented within all our teams, structures, and organisation.

NWG are an inclusive employer who support the rehabilitation of offenders, we will not, however consider candidates who have certain unspent convictions to ensure our commitment to fostering a safe and secure working environment for all OR colleagues, suppliers, customers and third parties.

We're aware that not everyone will have every skill listed in the job description, however if you have some of the skills listed, we'd encourage you to apply

NWG at a glance:

Our purpose at NWG is caring for the essential needs of our communities and environment, now and for generations to come.

We do this by providing reliable and affordable water and wastewater services for our customers.

We make a positive difference by operating efficiently and investing prudently, to maintain a sustainable and resilient business.

Our vision is to be the national leader in the provision of sustainable water and wastewater services. To support us in achieving our vision, we have five core values which are the guiding principles, defining who we are, what we do and how we do it.

Our benefits

We're a Great Place to Work because of the amazing people who work for us, and to say thank you we offer a range of benefits to colleagues. Our 'Tap Into' benefits include:

Generous holiday entitlement starting 26 days, plus bank holidays and additional time off on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. There's also the option to buy or sell holidays.
Company pension scheme, where we'll double match your contributions up to an employer contribution of 10%.
Free access to local attractions.
A fantastic discount scheme, with savings on days out, shopping, travel and more.
Award winning 'Living Well' wellbeing support, including access to a digital GP service for you and your family members.
Support with sustainable travel - through salary sacrifice cars and a cycle to work scheme.
Financial wellbeing support - access our community savings scheme, financial education and low cost loans through Salary Finance. We also provide 4 x Life Assurance and an Income Protection Scheme.
Support with your development - we offer a range of development opportunities, can support you through an interest free qualification loan and we'll even pay for any relevant professional body subscription.

This role has also been defined as a safety or security critical role and as a condition of a formal offer of employment you'll be required to undergo a drug and alcohol test.

Prospective employees and agency workers in defined safety and security critical roles will be required to undertake a drug and alcohol test after the job offer has been made. This will be prior to or within four weeks of their start date.

Prospective employees and agency workers who fail a pre-employment urine drug screen will have their sample analysed by the Company appointed laboratory as a matter of course. Failing a pre-employment drugs or alcohol test may lead to the job offer being revoked

Please note this role may require a DBS to be completed prior to employment

About us

NWG (Northumbrian Water Group) provides water and sewerage services to 2.7 million people in the North East of England as Northumbrian Water, and water services to 1.5 million people in the South East of England as Essex & Suffolk Water.

We are proud to serve our customers and we're committed to delivering great service, putting our customers at the heart of everything we do.

Our values

Our values describe our main principles, qualities and attributes. They are the guiding principles which define who we are, what we do and how we do it. They make us different from our competitors and guide our decisions and actions to drive us towards our vision.

Our values are:

Results Driven

We take responsibility for achieving excellent business results.

Ethical

We are open and honest and meet our commitments with a responsible approach to the environment and our communities.

Customer Focused

We aim to exceed the expectations of our internal and external customers.

Innovative

We continuously strive for innovative and better ways to deliver our business.

One Team

We work together consistently, promoting co-operation, to achieve our corporate objectives.

Our gallery

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Colleague benefits

We're the great company we are because of you - our people. As our way of saying thanks, we offer you a wide range of benefits and discounts to take advantage of.

To find out more about our benefits, see our benefits booklet attached to this advert.

Eyecare

Discounted Medicals

Employee Assistance Programme

Cycle2work

Buying & selling annual leave

Long service awards

Salary sacrifice car scheme

Computer
Loans

Award winning wellbeing site

NWG savings scheme

Company pension scheme

Pre-retirement workshops

Life assurance

Christmas savings club

Discounts & cashback offers

Qualification loan

Northumbrian Water

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Water Quality Scientist